Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust—Guidance Note on the Strengthened Policy Safeguards

Policy Papers, April 8, 2025

Source details

Canonical URL: Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust—Guidance Note on the Strengthened Policy Safeguards

In October 2024, as part of the Review of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) Facilities and Financing, the IMF Executive Board established the “Strengthened Policy Safeguards (SPS)”.
The SPS combines and replaces the previous High Access Procedures (HAP) and Enhanced Safeguards for debt sustainability and capacity to repay (ES), streamlining a key part of the safeguards framework for Fund lending.
The note provides guidance on how to implement the SPS and supersedes the 2022 guidance note on enhanced safeguards.

The SPS operates alongside the exceptional access framework and the Policy Safeguards for High Combined Credit (PS-HCC).
The SPS framework applies when:
- proposed access under a new arrangement, the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF), or an augmentation of access under an arrangement in the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) exceeds certain access thresholds, and
- countries at high risk of, or in, overall debt distress request financing.

Subject: Debt service, Debt sustainability, External debt, Public and publicly-guaranteed external debt, Public debt
Keywords: consultations, Country Documents, CtR table, Debt service, Debt sustainability, Debt sustainability analysis, financing request, Guidance note, IMF concessional lending, Informal Board, PRGT facilities framework, PRGT Safeguards., Public and publicly guaranteed external debt, Public and publicly-guaranteed external debt, Reducing debt vulnerability, SPS framework, SPS trigger, transparency policy